'Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Freedom Riders'

By Eric Etheridge

Updated May 23, 2008 8:11 pm ET

Hank Thomas

Photographed May 10, 2007 in Stone Mountain, GA, at age 65.

Born: August 29, 1941, in Jacksonville, FL. Grew up primarily in St. Augustine, FL.

Then: Sophomore, Howard University, Washington, DC. Active in the student movement there. One of the original thirteen Freedom Riders who left Washington, DC, on May 4, 1961, and on the bus firebombed in Anniston, AL, on May 14.

Since then: Became a field secretary for CORE in 1962, working in Birmingham and Huntsville, AL. Inducted into the Army in 1963 and chose to serve as a medic. Did a tour of duty in Vietnam 1965-66.

Moved to Atlanta after Vietnam and got in the franchise business, starting with a laundromat, followed by a Dairy Queen. Today he and his wife own two McDonald's and four Marriott hotels; they live in Stone Mountain, GA.

Quote: We'd heard about Parchman. We'd heard about the number of blacks who went to Parchman who never returned. We also knew that Parchman was way out in the country some place.

Some of the guards there would tell us, "Y'all get up there at Parchman, they're gonna straighten you all out. And there ain't no Robert Kennedy or John Kennedy gonna do anything about it." And people began to think that.

But me and lots of the other folks didn't buy it. When we get there, we're still going to do things our way. But the dehumanizing process started as soon as we got there. We were told to strip naked and then walked down this long corridor. For some of us who were born and bred in the South and used to go skinny-dipping, it was no big deal. But I'll never forget Jim Farmer, a very dignified man. And here he is walking down this long corridor naked. That is dehumanizing. And that was the whole purpose.

Carol Silver

Photographed Feb. 18, 2007 in San Francisco, CA, at age 68.

Born: October 1, 1938, in Boston, MA, and grew up there and in Revere and Worcester, MA.

Then: Living in New York and working at the United Nations. Graduated form the University of Chicago in 1960.

Since then: Attended law school at the University of Chicago. Organized a chapter of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, which supported civil rights lawyers working in the South with summer interns and research. After graduating law school in 1964, interned for a year with Floyd McKissick, a prominent black attorney in North Carolina.

From 1965 to 1970, worked in federal programs in various cities in California providing legal services for the poor, returning each summer to Mississippi and Louisiana to work with the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.

Elected to three terms on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, serving from 1977 to 1989. Since then she has practiced law in San Francisco. In 2002 she started the Afghan Friends Network, to aid in Afghan redevelopment.

Quote: The ride between Jackson and Parchman took about four hours, and was more frightening than any previous part of the jail experience. There were twenty-three girls, white and black, crowded into an army-transport type truck, which was completely lacking in springs. Many of us had black-and-blue marks when we arrived, because the drivers delighted in stopping and staring suddenly, throwing us against each other and the sharp corners of the seats.

But the most terrifying part of the ride was the three times when the drive suddenly jolted off to the side of the highway and stopped. We imagined every horror, including an ambush by the KKK. I suppose they were just waiting for our escort of state police and FBI to catch up, or something equally innocent, but until we were moving again, none of us breathed an easy breath.

Michael Audain

Photographed Feb. 26, 2007 in Vancouver, BC at age: 69.

Born: July 31, 1937 in Bournemouth, England. Grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. A fifth-generation British Columbian, his great-grandfather, James Dunsmuir, was a prominent industrialist and politician in the province.

Then: Had finished his third year at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. One of the few Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson who came alone, without working through organizers.

Since then: Helped found the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association in 1962. Graduated University of British Columbia in 1963, then did graduate studies there. Active in the nuclear-disarmament movement. Studied at the London School of Economics 1966-68, then moved to Toronto. Active in the anti-Vietnam War movement in London and Toronto.

In 1980, started Polygon Homes, a residential real estate development company, in Vancouver, which he still runs today. Active as a philanthropist in the arts. A member of the British Columbia Arts Council and a trustee of the National Gallery of Canada.

Quote: The Jackson police didn't have to arrest me, but since they did, fine. I was so delighted to meet the other Freedom Riders in jail. In many ways, the experience changed my life.

When I came back to Canada, I helped start the BC Civil Liberties Association. I got involved in the peace movement. I was president of the Nuclear Disarmament Club at UBC and organized peace marches and sit-ins for peace.

Later, I was involved with Vietnam War resistance in eastern Canada and in England. In May 1968 I was sent as a delegate from the London School of Economics to the general strike in Paris. I was at Woodstock &ndash; I was living in a commune in Toronto at the time.

I was involved in a lot of stuff, but it all stemmed from the Freedom Riders. I'd never really been politically involved before.

Charles Purnell

Photographed May 5, 2007 at Savannah, GA at age 77.

Born: January 19, 1941, in Rolling Fork, MS. Grew up primarily there and in several other small towns in the delta and North Mississippi, including Cleveland, Coldwater and Holly Bluff; his father was an African Methodist Episcopal preacher who liked to change churches every two years.

Then: Student, Campbell Junior College, in Jackson.

Since then: Enlisted in the Army and served two years, including a 12-month tour in South Korea, 1964-65. Graduated from Tougaloo College.

He has been the pastor of the Bethel AME church in Savannah, GA, since 1990. Before that he led other AME churches in Savannah, Columbus, and Atlanta.

Quote: I was in high school Cleveland, Mississippi, when we got word about the murder of Emmett Till. [Cleveland is about thirty-five miles from Money, where Till was abducted and later murdered.]

I had heard growing up that you weren't supposed to look at a white woman eye-to-eye, nor a white person. You were expected to look down, and I don't recall ever doing that. What I developed very early in life, I was just as important as they were, and I had no need to look. If my attention was not called, I had no need to look in that direction. I only asked for what I needed in stores or whatever, and purchased that, and went forth. I never spent any time on street corners, as it was a custom of young persons who were not disciplined by their parents. My daddy was a very strict disciplinarian and a preacher, so we did not get an opportunity to even be enticed.

Dad often spoke from the pulpit about the dignity of black people. He had a work ethic that he felt that we should embrace. And he always said that nobody was going to come in his home, as long as he had breath, to do any harm. He perhaps inherited this last from my granddaddy, who died before I was born.

He, too, was a farmer and was an expert Winchester shooter, so he developed a reputation as being a crazy black person. Apparently there was a little bit of anger when he was stirred up. My father was also easily stirred up. As long as Daddy got along with white folk, he was okay. He would always correct them for referring to them as "boy" or "uncle." I remember on several occasion in my presence he did that.

Larry Bell

Photographed Feb. 9, 2007 in Jackson, MS at age: 64.

Born: March 5, 1942, in Monroe, GA. Grew up there and in Los Angeles, where his family moved in 1950.

Then: Freshman, Los Angeles City College.

Since then: Returned to Los Angeles, working as a janitor during the day and attending City College at night. In 1966 was one of the first blacks to go to work for United Airlines in California. When he retired in 2000, he was a flight-attendant supervisor and also trained newly hired flight attendants. Still lives in Los Angeles.

Quote: The clothing that they gave us in Parchman was a t-shirt that was military green and some green boxer shorts. No shoes, no. And as we began to protest, they took them from us and left us with nothing. Then they took the mattress, so now we had to lie on a metal slab with them little round holes&mdash;and boy, you talk about some hard sleeping at night? When you're sleeping on the thing, there's that indentation where your skin goes through that little round hole, and there you are, half of you is like being suffocated and the other half is being cut out, you couldn't sleep any way you tried. So we sat up and we debated all night, and we got more boisterous in our songs.

Matthew Walker, Jr.

Photographed May 25, 2007 in Nashville, TN at age 77.

Born: June 1, 1941, in Nashville and grew up there. His father was a surgeon and chairman of the surgery department at Meharry Medical College, and a member of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council.

Then: Student at Fisk University and an active member of the Nashville Student Movement.

Since then: Returned to Fisk University for an additional year, then joined the army in 1962 and served three years. Attended Columbia University in New York City from 1965-68, and was involved in the 1968 uprising there. Dropped out and started organizing. Among his early efforts were rent strikes in Harlem.

In 1970 went to work as an organizer for the Commission for Racial Justice, an organization supported by the Church of Christ. Worked for the Commission in several locations, including Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and North Carolina. From 1982-90, organized state workers in Louisiana and hospitality workers in New Orleans for the AFL-CIO. Returned to Nashville in the late nineties. Still active in local politics, focusing on environmental issues and the public schools.

Quote: When we got to Mississippi, National Guardsmen boarded the bus with fixed bayonets on their rifles. They stood the length of the bus in the aisle. I said to one of them, "Man, that's a mighty fancy rifle you've got there."

His response was, "I ain't got one word to say to you." [Laughs.]

"Yeah," I said to myself, "These are our protectors."

Jean Thompson

Photographed June 23, 2007 in Amherst, MA at age 65.

Born: January 13, 1942, in Lake Providence, LA. Grew up there and in New Orleans.

Then: Active in New Orleans CORE, along with her sisters, Alice and Shirley. Shirley was arrested at the Trailways station on June 6th.

Since then: After bailing out of jail in Jackson, she returned to New Orleans to train Freedom Riders about to go into Jackson. Continued to do sit-ins and picketing for several years. She also did civil rights work elsewhere in the South, including Canton, MS, after Medgar Evars was murdered, and in North Carolina.

Moved to New York City in the mid-sixties, where she worked with local CORE chapters. In the late sixties she was involved in civil rights, anti-war and feminist efforts in Berkeley and San Francisco.

She has lived in Amherst, MA, since the early seventies.

Quote: My parents always talked about injustice of segregation, but they were optimistic, they didn't feel like it was last forever. They raised us to be ready. I remember my dad saying the day will come, and when the day comes, you should be ready.

My father was in Colorado, looking for work, when I was arrested in Jackson, and he found out that I was a Freedom Rider. When I got back home he called and said, "What are you doing this for?" I had to remind him that this is what you told us to do. So, he didn't say anything.

Then I said, "And by the way, Shirley's gonna leave tomorrow [to go to Mississippi as a Freedom Rider]."

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